Chapter 5, Part 2: Why did Jesus have to die?
So what? · Lesson 2 of 3 · About 28 minutes · Grades 1–5
The Evidence for Jesus · A lesson for grades 1–5So what?
Big questionWhy did Jesus have to die?
By the end, kids can
- Explain a ransom as the price to set a captive free, and tell who was holding us: sin, death, and the devil.
- Know that God has always been the Redeemer, and that Jesus paid with his own life: the captor wasn't paid off, he was beaten.
- Know that if Jesus bought us, we belong to him.
- Say the memory verse with some words missing: Romans 5:8 (grades 3–4: John 8:36; grade 5+: Romans 6:23).
You'll need
- This part's one-page worksheet for each child's level (grades 1–2, 3–4, or 5), handed out at the start
- Bibles for the look-ups (grades 3–4)
- Pencils
- A screen with sound and internet: the clips come from the video “Jesus Paid a Ransom. Who Got Paid?”
Before you teach
This lesson plays one of the chapter's video lessons in clips. Its page makes the same case for teens and adults, with every source written out: watch it to prepare, or use it with older kids and youth groups. Click a part to go to its slide:
- Jesus paid a ransom. Who got paid? The cross as the early church told it · In class: Captives, The Redeemer, Who got paid?, Going deeper · Grades 3–5, Good news
The lesson
- 2 min Warm-up: who could pay?
- 2 min Memory verse: fill in the missing words
- 4 min Who was holding us?: watch (1 minute), then talk
- 6 min The Redeemer: watch (1½ minutes), talk, and the worksheet
- 4 min Who got paid?: watch (under a minute), then talk
- 3 min Going deeper (grades 3–5): what the early church believed (1 minute)
- 1 min A quick check
- 3 min Good news: you belong to him: watch (half a minute), then talk
- 3 min Memory verse again, talk, and pray
Worksheets
Print this lesson's one-page sheet for each child, at their level. They fill it in as you go: the ✎ Worksheet sticker on a slide says which part goes with it.
Send it home
After class, share the one-minute Short with families, to watch together and talk about this week:
Answer key
The worksheets don't print their answers. Here they all are, and on the slide before the credits.
Grades 1–2
- Fill it in! sin, ransom, cross, rose, belong
- Romans 5:8: love, sinners, died
Grades 3–4
- Look it up! 1. his life as a ransom for many · 2. pass over you · 3. the precious blood of Christ · 4. eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
- John 8:36: Son, free, indeed
Grade 5+
- Crack the code: JESUS PAID THE RANSOM
- Romans 6:23: wages, gift, life
Presenting
Each part opens with a ▶ Watch slide that plays a clip of the 8-minute video “Why Did Jesus Have to Die? Ransom, Wrath, and the Victory of the Cross” right on the slide: read the two questions, then click (or press →, or use a clicker) to play the clip. The slides wait while it plays and stops by itself; click twice to stop it early. Then click to show the answers. The clips need an internet connection.
Click the slide, or press → or Space (a clicker works too), to show the next thing; ← goes back, even while a clip plays. F presents full screen (Esc leaves it). P opens the presenter view, a second window with your notes, the next slide, and a timer, that moves with the slides: put it on your laptop and the slides on the projector. N shows the notes under the slides.
Your script
So what?
Say: Last time we watched God's big story, and heard that Jesus gave his life as a ransom. Today is Part 2: why did Jesus have to die? Who was holding us, and who got paid?
Who could pay?
Ask: If you were stuck somewhere and couldn't get out by yourself, what would you need? (Someone to come and get you.)
Say: In the law of Moses, “one of their relatives may redeem them”: pay the price to set them free. Remember that word: ransom. It's the key to today.
Clicks: 1. the line “God's law said a relative could pay the price to buy him back (Leviticus 25:48–49). That price is called a ransom.”
Sources: Leviticus 25:47–49
Remember our verse?
Do: Say it together once with the motions from last time. Then click to show each missing word as kids call it out.
Answers: love, sinners, died (the same words as the grades 1–2 sheet).
Clicks: 1. the missing word “love” · 2. the missing word “sinners” · 3. the missing word “died”
Captives · Watch: Who was holding us?
Say: Jesus said he came “to give his life as a ransom for many.” A ransom sets a captive free. So who was holding us?
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's under a minute and stops by itself.
Ask after: What's a ransom? What did Jesus say about sin? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Jesus paid a ransom. Who got paid?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: The price that sets a captive free. · 3. the answer to 2: “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”
Sources: Mark 10:45 · John 8:34 · Romans 6:23 · Hebrews 2:14–15 · 1 John 5:19
Who holds the chain?
Say: Sin doesn't just make us guilty. It holds on to us. Jesus said, “everyone who sins is a slave to sin,” and Paul said, “the wages of sin is death.”
Say: And behind sin and death, the Bible says someone is holding the chain: the devil. His power is real, but it isn't his own, and it only works because of our sin. He leads us into sin, then charges us with it.
Ask: Has anyone here never done anything wrong? (No one. “All have sinned.”)
Clicks: 1. the line “Behind sin and death stands the devil, “the tempter” and “the accuser.” We couldn't buy our way out.”
Sources: John 8:34 · Romans 6:23 · Hebrews 2:14–15 · Revelation 12:10 · Romans 3:23
The Redeemer · Watch: The Redeemer
Say: The Bible's answer to captives is a Redeemer, someone who buys them back. It starts in Egypt.
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's about 1½ minutes.
Ask after: What died for every house? What price did Jesus pay? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Jesus paid a ransom. Who got paid?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: A lamb. “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” · 3. the answer to 2: His own life: “the precious blood of Christ.”
Sources: Exodus 6:6 · Exodus 12:13 · 1 Corinthians 5:7 · Leviticus 25:48–49 · Psalm 49:7–15 · 1 Peter 1:18–19 · Colossians 2:13–15
Not silver or gold
Say: These are real silver coins from around Jesus's time. Silver like this was what people paid with. But Peter says we weren't bought back with silver or gold. Jesus paid with his own life.
Say: Boaz bought back land and a family for Ruth. In the same way, the Son of God became our relative, part of our family, so he could buy us back. No one else could pay: a psalm says “No one can redeem the life of another.” And the charge against us was nailed to the cross.
Worksheet: Grades 1–2 fill in the blanks now. Grades 3–4 look up the four verses in their Bibles.
Worksheet answers: Grades 1–2, Fill it in!: sin, ransom, cross, rose, belong
Worksheet answers: Grades 3–4, Look it up!: 1. his life as a ransom for many · 2. pass over you · 3. the precious blood of Christ · 4. eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
Clicks: 1. the line “Not with silver or gold, Peter says, but “with the precious blood of Christ.””
Sources: Mark 10:45 · 1 Peter 1:18–19 · The Tyrian shekel · Ruth 4:9–10 · Hebrews 2:11–14 · Psalm 49:7
Who got paid? · Watch: Who got paid?
Say: If Jesus paid a ransom, here's a question people have asked for almost two thousand years: who got paid?
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's under a minute.
Ask after: Who got paid? What does Chris White say? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Jesus paid a ransom. Who got paid?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: It never says. The price was his blood, and we were bought for God. · 3. the answer to 2: “Satan is not paid; he is defeated.”
Sources: Origen, Commentary on Matthew 16.8, tr. Rashdall (1919) · Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 45.22 · 1 Peter 1:18–19 · Revelation 5:9 · Chris White, “The Scapegoat and Atonement” (2026)
He was beaten
Say: Here's what the Bible does tell us. We were bought out of sin, death, and the devil's hand, and we were bought for God. Paul says God “forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness… nailing it to the cross.” That charge was the only hold the devil had on us, and it's been torn up.
Ask: If a captor loses his only hold on you, what happens? (You walk free.)
Worksheet: Grade 5+ cracks the code now.
Worksheet answers: Grade 5+, Crack the code: JESUS PAID THE RANSOM
Clicks: 1. the line “The captor wasn't paid off. He was beaten: the charge against us was nailed to the cross.”
Sources: Colossians 2:13–15 · Hebrews 2:14–15 · Revelation 5:9
Going deeper · Grades 3–5 · Watch: What the early church believed
Say: How did the first Christians, the ones closest to the apostles, explain the cross? Listen for a fishhook.
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's about a minute.
Ask after: What did Irenaeus write? What was Gregory's picture? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Jesus paid a ransom. Who got paid?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: “When Satan is bound, man is set free.” · 3. the answer to 2: A fishhook hidden in bait: God came hidden in our flesh, and the captor swallowed the hook.
Sources: Epistle to Diognetus 9 · Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.21.3 · Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism 24 · 1 Corinthians 2:6–8
True or false?
Do: Read each one and have kids stand up for true and sit down for false. Click to stamp each answer.
Answers: 1. False, all have sinned. 2. True. 3. False: “not with perishable things such as silver or gold… but with the precious blood of Christ.” 4. False: the price was his blood, and we were bought for God; the captor wasn't paid, he was beaten.
Clicks: 1. the answer to 1: False. All have sinned. · 2. the answer to 2: True. · 3. the answer to 3: False. He paid with his own blood. · 4. the answer to 4: False. The Bible never says. The devil was beaten.
Good news · Watch: You belong to him
Say: So put it all together. Watch what it means for you.
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's half a minute.
Ask after: Was the captor paid? Whose are you? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Jesus paid a ransom. Who got paid?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: No. He was beaten. · 3. the answer to 2: His. “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.”
Sources: Colossians 2:13–15 · 1 Corinthians 6:19–20
Bought for God
Say: Jesus said, “Repent and believe the good news!” He gave his life to buy you back. You can turn from your sin, and tell him you belong to him.
Say: God says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”
Ask: If you belong to Jesus, what is one way you could show it this week?
Clicks: 1. the line ““You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” How you live shows whose you are.”
Sources: 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 · Mark 1:15 · Isaiah 43:1
Say it again
Do: Say the verse together, then try it with eyes closed.
Worksheet: Everyone fills in the missing words of their own memory verse and colors a star each time they say it.
Worksheet answers: Grades 1–2, Romans 5:8: love, sinners, died
Worksheet answers: Grades 3–4, John 8:36: Son, free, indeed
Worksheet answers: Grade 5+, Romans 6:23: wages, gift, life
Talk and pray
Do: Talk about one or two of the questions, then pray. Kids can pray along one line at a time if they want to, or just listen.
Say: Next time, Part 3: Jesus asks us to believe in him. But what is faith?
Do: Send the worksheets home, with this part's one-minute Short for families. The link is in your guide, under “Send it home.”
Clicks: 1. the prayer
Answer key
Do: Show this when kids check their work, or keep it on your laptop in the presenter view. The worksheets don't print their answers, so this is the key.
Pictures and Scripture
Every picture on these slides, with its credit, license, and a link to its source.